Focus Financial comes into focus

When Focus Financial Partners announced last week it was ditching Wall Street to go private, it sparked new questions about deal-making in the wealth management industry.

The publicly traded parent of 88 registered investment advisory firms has lasted barely five years with ordinary shareholders. An initial public offering is seen as the pinnacle of capitalism, but Focus’s move to sell itself for $53 a share to Clayton, Dubilier & Rice shows that private equity firms are in the pole position. Last year, the investment shops were directly or indirectly, through RIAs they already own, involved in seven out of 10 transactions across wealth management, boutique investment bank Echelon Partners says.

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Whether as majority or minority owners, private equity is the single biggest driving force in consolidation of the highly fragmented wealth management landscape. So what does going private bring to the table for Focus?

Read more: Focus go-private deal praised amid industry's M&A slowdown

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